How I’ve Tripled My Income Every Year as a Web Designer

I’ve tripled my income every year as a web designer, and I believe you can too.

You don’t need a fancy degree, startup budget, or to go into debt. All you really need is determination to become successful, dedication to learning the craft, and a heart for helping others.

Don’t get me wrong, you will still need to do the work, but I’m here to tell you that it is possible to triple your income every year and begin to make a good income for yourself as a web designer.

In this post, I’m going to share with you the key things I did during each year of my business and the secrets I used to triple my income every year.

Year One: Reinvest Everything

When I started Priceless Design I was a full-time student with no job, living off student loans. I bootstrapped my business from day one.

Bootstrapping is the act of getting oneself into or out of a situation using existing resources.

Priceless Design started out as a free blogspot site. I had very little extra cash and waited 6 months before even purchasing a domain. You can still see the original site in all it’s glory. Please excuse the awful drop shadows and kerning. This is just proof that we all started somewhere, right?

I started my business with a bang that summer by giving away 10 free blog makeovers. Most of these sites were for “in real life” friends, although a handful were for friends-of-friends. These sites for friends-of-friends were great because I got to start experimenting with customer service and working for relative strangers.

If you are having trouble building your portfolio, I highly recommend trying a giveaway strategy. Maybe you don’t need to give away 10 sites. Maybe 3 or 4 is right for you. Any way about it, giving away free designs in the beginning is a great way to build both your skill and your portfolio at the same time.

My first paying client was the sister of one of the free blog makeover participants. She paid me $50 for a complete blog makeover. It’s been all uphill from there!

Reinvest as much of your income back into your business as possible.

The best advice that I can give you for your first year is to reinvest as much of your income back into your business as possible. Things you might invest in are: a domain, hosting, online courses, and premium fonts or graphics.

Every single dollar I earned that first year was reinvested back into my business.

By the end of my first year, I was charging $100 for a blog makeover. After reinvesting everything back into the business (about $150) my net income for year one was $0.

Year Two: Establish Yourself Online

During my second year, I took a step away from designing for friends and found my first online clients. Once again, I started by giving away a site. This time I did it more strategically.

I started searching blog communities for a medium sized blogger who had an active audience and clear need for a blog redesign. Once I identified a good candidate, I started commenting on her site and followed her on social media.

My plan was to offer her a free blog makeover in exchange for a blog post about the redesign process that included a giveaway for a gift certificate for my design services. It was a scary leap of faith for me to send that email, but she accepted right away!

That free blog design and subsequent review post led to my first paying online clients.

Off and on that year, I would do sponsored giveaways for gift certificates or smaller items like blog buttons. This helped my design business become known in the blog community and helped me build a social following.

One other crucial thing I did during year two was make designer friends online. The friendships that I made and groups that I joined helped me immensely as I worked on improving my web design and project management skills.

By the end of my second year, I tripled the cost of a blog makeover to $300 and started offering WordPress web design services for $700. I also finished graduate school and started a full-time job, which allowed me to reinvest some of my income back into the business.

I purchased developer licenses for tools that would allow me to better serve my clients like Backup Buddy and SlideDeck as well as more fonts and graphics. In addition, I drew a small salary to help our family financially.

Year Three: Find A Niche

My third year of business marked a turning point for me from beginner to intermediate web developer. It’s hard to describe exactly what happened, but I hit a point where all of the sudden CSS started to become a second language. I also became comfortable creating widgetized homepages for Genesis child themes.

This was the year that I fell into the niche of designing blogs for book reviewers and authors. At first you may not know which types of sites you like working with, but it is a very smart move to declare a niche by your second or third year in business. You’ll likely become known in the community and referrals will start coming more easily.

One author’s site led to the next. My waiting list kept growing and every time I added a client to the waitlist I raised my prices by a few hundred dollars: $700, $800, $1000, $1200 then $1500 by the end of the year. By December, I still had a long waiting list and took another scary leap. I raised my prices on January 1, 2014 to $2500 for an author web site.

In year three, I began to take my web design process seriously and invested in Basecamp as a project management tool. That $20 a month was very difficult for me to spend at first. However, I quickly realized that it’s probably the best $20 a month I invest in my business. Not only does Basecamp make me look more professional, it saves me loads of time which directly translates into making more money.

Between years two and three, I more than tripled my income making about $9000 that year. I did it not by taking on more clients but by slowly raising my prices over time, according to my skill and experience.

Year Four: Refine Processes

Year four was my best year in business yet. Once again I tripled my income while still working a full-time job. I attribute my success to two key factors:

1. Rebranding and customizing the copy on my site to cater to my niche.

I rewrote the copy on my site to appeal to my ideal client. This makes it easier for my clients to find me in a generic Google search. It also makes them feel like they have arrived in the right place when my portfolio examples included their colleagues and sites similar to their needs.

Rewriting my service offerings to include everything my ideal client wants and needs creates an inherit level of trust in my expertise. By including everything in one package price, I don’t have to ‘nickel and dime’ my clients.

In year four I took my administrative processes seriously. I did a lot of research and experimentation with my web design processes until I discovered a workflow that would work well for me and my business.

Without perfecting my processes there is no way I could have taken on the number of clients I did during year four. I only had about 20 hours each week to run my business outside of my full-time job.

You can see my exact processes and get your own ready-to-customize version in my online course The Process Hack.

As I mentioned above, I started the year with a $2500 price point for a website and raised my prices to $3600 at the end of the year. I invested in a new laptop with a retina display, the Advanced Genesis WP course, Flywheel Hosting (read my review!), along with more fonts and graphics.

When all was said and done, I had tripled my income yet again making about $27,000 during year four. Not bad for 20 hours a week, doing something I love!

How I’ve Tripled My Income Every Year As a Web Designer

I have doubled my prices every year (at minimum). Even though it can be scary, I continually remind myself that my skill and experience are increasing and my prices should follow suit.

Along with doubling my prices, I have also increased the value I offer to my clients by creating service packages that perfectly fit their needs. The investments I made in my business along the way have also added value. I can offer my clients premium plugins, tools, and fonts at no extra cost to them.

It seems like such a simple thing really. Double your prices and double your income. For me, the combination of doubling my prices and perfecting my process has actually tripled my income as I can get more done in the same amount of time.

To help you Plan Your Process, I’ve created a free online course that will help you create a winning web design workflow!

I honestly can’t believe Plan Your Process was free! I thought I had a good process down before taking this course, but my mind is spinning with different things I can improve. Everything from my onboarding and wrap-up process to installing plugins to organizing my own content just got so much easier. Thanks for the amazing course, Katie!

Conclusion

Now that you know my secrets, I’d like to challenge you. When was the last time you raised your prices? Might you go double your prices right now? What would be the worst thing that could happen?

It helped me to know that even if the number of clients I took on reduced by half I would still make the same amount of money as I had before. Luckily, that did not happen. I truly believe it won’t happen to you either so long as you can find that sweet spot between your skill and cost.

I would be willing to bet that a large portion of you out there could double your prices right now and the only impact it would have on your business would be more money in your pocket.

What do you think? Is anything holding you back? Let me know in the comments below.

Comments

You’re brilliant. I’m still on year one (since I started in January or so) but all this is such gold! I’m not extremely confident since there’s still much I don’t know but I’m constantly learning! I never even thought to do a design for free in exchange for a review on the process. Just that is such an AMAZING IDEA!! I definitely need to do a few of those and investing every penny I make from this point forward back into my biz is such a good idea too. I’m working at the same time right now so I don’t see why not!

Thank you for being such an inspiration to me. I wish I could have met you sooner! 😉

I’m so glad that I could offer some helpful advice to you, Amber K! I know that not everyone can afford to reinvest in their business in the beginning, but I can tell you for sure that it did make a difference for me. Plus, most things you’d reinvest in are considered business expenses so it will lower your tax liability at the end of the year too!

Katie, you’re awesome! I am so floored at how you were able to grow your business so quickly. I have raised my prices considerably over this last year. Still probably not where they should be but higher than they’ve ever been. It’s been great cause I’m able to make more money without taking on as many clients.
I appreciate you sharing your experience and business know how…you are an inspiration for sure!

Liz, that’s so great that you’ve raised your prices and are making more money in less time! You are such a hard worker and I know that you inspire other mom’s who want to work from home. You were one of the first designers who I connected with online, and I’m so glad that we have been on this journey together! xo

This is so inspiring! I’m only in my first month of blogging. So far I’ve only been updating about my life, some tips and also free downloads. My plan is to start a logo design service and I’ve already began working on it, but it can be so intimidating creating a service not knowing if it will sell good or even sell at all. I will definitely be taking these tips into consideration!

I really, really love this post. While I intend to get a job at a design studio (we’ll see!) after I graduate, I totally want to freelance so I can build my portfolio, and continue honing my skills.

I’m curious how you went about setting your prices. Did you do some research to see what other designers were charging for services, or did you just go with felt right for you and the clients in your niche?

There’s no rule that says you can’t start freelancing while in school! Now is the perfect time to start building your business while the stakes are not too high. When I first started, I charged what I felt comfortable. But after the first year I did look at what others at my skill level were charging. I think that is a good starting point, but don’t feel like you can’t charge more than they do! Especially if your process and services offer more. It’s not about how long you’ve been designing, it’s about the value that your client receives from your work 🙂

Amazing post! And thank you!!!! I absolutely love your idea of “strategically” giving away a web site/reblog design. One of my favorite authors has a terrible website and I would love to redo hers for my portfolio, because in the end, you’re right, we both win. WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE?!? You’re a genius!

I’m entering year two and I’ve been doing graphics and webdesign for various markets and for peanuts. I’ve been in a rut mentally in regards to lack of excitement in my work and little pay due to the two things previously mentioned. Your post gave me a renewed outlook on things especially now that I can see why choosing a niche will be beneficial. Again thanks for this post!

It sounds like you are formulating a plan already! Giving away designs when you are first starting is a great way to get your name out there. My one recommendation is to treat that project like she is paying you $10,000 for the site. Roll out the red carpet and give her every reason to shout your name from the rooftops when the site is complete! Wish you the best of luck! xo

LOVE this article! I’m a graphic designer and really want to get into the world of web design. Really good tips and ideas as far as what you did each year, but i’m curious how to did you start to learn the craft itself, like coding, html..etc. Is it something you went to school for or self taught through online tutorials or whatnot?

Thanks so much for the compliments on my article. I took one graphic design class in college (I was an art minor) but we didn’t cover coding (CSS). I’m pretty much self-taught in that regard. I googled a lot, and also poured through http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp every time I was confused about writing CSS.

Also, have you thought about using a visual web design builder such as SquareSpace? It might be a great place to start if you are more visually inclined. There are many graphic designers who are exclusively using SquareSpace these days!

I hope this info helps get you started in the right direction! I’ll keep your question in mind as I plan future content.

You touched on ways to find more clients (or have them find you), but I wonder if you have a little more on that? I am wrapping up my first full year in web design and have made just over $20,000. My niche is eCommerce which explains the reason for the relatively high income for my first year (basically eCommerce businesses always have new product to add so I have a couple great ongoing clients right now). What worries me is that I haven’t had many other clients that need me beyond setting up their website, so my dilemma is finding new clients to take their place?? If you have any tips I would so appreciate them!! My site is http://www.jcowritingservices.com/

Congrats on finishing your first full year of web design! Clearly, you have what it takes to become a successful designer. I took a look around your site, and I think the best advice I can give you right now is it to take a close look at your branding and what you are doing to market your business. For example, neither your url “jcowritingservices” nor your Twitter account mention that you offer complete web design. Although it’s great that you offer both services, I would take a closer look at how you are positioning yourself in the market. Check out this Pinterest board for a plethora of articles that can help guide you with branding in the online space today: https://www.pinterest.com/rekitanicole/branding-%2B-business/

Thanks so much! I’m actually merging two business, one a writing service and the other web design. So that is why some of the areas are a little vague. Thanks so much for bringing that to my attention! I will fix those things and hope to see more clients in the near future.

I just found this article on Pinterest and I’m so glad I did! This is so inspirational! I’ve read a lot of articles recently from successful people, but none of them really relate back to when they were first starting, or it seems that all of a sudden they were just wildly successful. This article is so real and honest. Great advice! Thank you for sharing!